Comment by rrgok
19 days ago
Oh well, I know I'm going to be downvoted to hell. But I always hated this kind of shitty questions in exams
> Exam question: Describe the attitude of Dostoevsky’s Underground Man towards acting in one’s own self-interest, and how this is connected to his concerns about free will. Are his views self-contradictory?
I don't know nothing about Dostoevsky. Never read any of his books. I don't even know when he was born or dies. I only know the word Dostoevsky. It can be any author or book, not specific to Dostoevsky. Now, coming to my hatred for the exam question: What the fuck am I? A telepath? How am I supposed to know what was happening in Dostoevsky mind when he wrote that paragraph in the book? Whatever is the answer the professor think is right, is that answer approved by Dostoevsky himself? If not, who the fuck the professor think he is to tell me my answer is wrong (yeah I know he can do whatever he wants with his exams - but you get the point) and not in accordance with Dostoevsky intentions? If Dostoevsky didn't write anything about his intentions of that book, what is the point of writing a book? Aren't words, sentences and paragraphs meant to transmit knowledge without so much delusional interpretations? This is all just mental gymnastic spouting one non sense after other without any way to confirm the real intention behind the author mental model.
I really don't understand this type of questions. Is there a book explaining the mental model of the author while he wrote the book under study? If not, any interpretable opinion is valid as any other.
The question is not asking about Dostoevsky's views, it's asking about the views of a character in one of Dostoevsky's novels. The character's views are written down in the book.
Since answering the question without reading the book remains problematic, and apparently telepathy isn't your strong point, you would probably have to fall back on your reading comprehension skills to make progress, although the author also suggests using AI if that's too time consuming.
What a patronizing answer. Since your telepathic power are so strong, why don't you tell me what was going in Dostoevsky mind (mental model? emotions? Was he ever under drugs when he wrote that book?) when he wrote that book and exactly on the topics raised by the question? Oh well I guess you don't have the power to read the past. Maybe you should put my parent post to AI and let it summarize for you, so that it can explain clearly what was my point. Is it too hard for you to copy paste?
I'm sorry, yes that was a deliberately patronising response. I was trying to write a funny reply. I actually suspected your comment might not have been entirely serious as the question you are referring to isn't asking you to do the thing you were complaining about (it's not asking you to speculate about Dostoevsky's views). The question is about the views of the main character in one of his books and since the character is fictional and his thoughts and actions are written down in the book it's possible to know about them without telepathy. I thought you might have been intentionally misunderstanding this in the way the OP was complaining his students did. Sorry for any offence caused.
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